HISTORY 283
JEWISH STUDIES 235
JEWS
IN MODERN TIMES
Syllabus
• http://www.history.umd.edu/Faculty/BCoop
erman/Modern/283syllabus2007.htm
• http://www.history.umd.edu
– click on “Faculty” and then “Cooperman” and
then on the course name
History 299c
Films
Tuesday 3-6
F S Key 0106
Hist283H/JWST235H
• Honors students
• Jewish Studies Majors
• Students with strong background in Jewish
Studies
• See me if you have questions
• Hand in a sheet with times you definitely
CAN’T come -- Name; phone no.; email;
background
New Section Time
• We will move section 0107, probably to
Thursday after class, but that isn’t fixed
• See Michael Phelan after class and hand in
a sheet identifying yourself and giving
times that you would prefer.
Professor Bernard Cooperman
Taliaferro (TLF) Rm 2130;
301-405-4271
cooperma@umd.edu
Office hours:
Tues. 10:00-11:00,
Thurs. 11:00-12:00,
and by appointment
Teaching Assistants
• Brian Phelan (FSK 3???)
slavirish@yahoo.com 240-418-2087
– office hours Mon. 11-12; Tues 2-3 and by
appointment
• Michael Lesley (FSK 3???)
mlesley@gmail.com 240-535-7413
– office hours Mon. 1:00-2:00 and by appointment
Stock Issues I
• external vs internal
• passive vs active
• shall we periodize according to how others treat the
Jews?
Stock Issues II
• Who is a Jew in Jewish History?
–
–
–
–
apologetic approach
Nazi definitions
State of Israel’s definitions
continuity?
Stock Issues III
• What community is the true bearer and
proper subject of Jewish history?
– territorial definition unavailable
Approaches
•
•
•
•
Idealist Approach
grand theories about God or Destiny
traditional Jewish self-perception
combined with German idealist and
romanticist historiography
Heinrich Graetz (1817-91)
Graetz II
• The totality of Judaism is discernible only
in its history. Its complete nature, the sum of
its powers, becomes clear only in the light
of history. Every vital idea must create for
itself a solid existence.
• History is not only the reflection of the idea,
but also the test of its power.
– Structure of Jewish History, p. 65
Redefinition of Basic Concepts
• Diaspora --> “theoretical period” when
immediacy becomes reflection
• Moses Mendelssohn
• (1729–1786)
Limitations
• political emancipation vis-à-vis Holocaust
• religious mission vis-à-vis Zionism
• Zionist historiography vis-à-vis diaspora
– (e.g. President of Israel, Moshe Katzav, at the
60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz)
Here in the heart of Auschwitz-Birkenau, a
scream seeks to burst from the depth of our soul
and yet there is a spark of pride.
The Jewish people have arisen from the death
camps ashes, as a brand snatched from the
burning fire.
We have returned to our homeland. Three
hours flight from here, we have re-established
our homeland….
The Jewish people survived the destruction,
suffering, exiles, expulsions and the greatest
tragedy - the Shoah.
Despite it all, we have returned to our homeland
and we have built a modern, developed,
democratic state, which has ingathered the
Jewish people from the four corners of the earth.
In all of human history, there has been no
similar event.
My brothers and sisters, the martyrs of the
Shoah, who were not able to join the State of
Israel, world leaders have come to this place,
which was your hell, in order to remember you.
You are the lost citizens of our homeland.
Gartner (chapter 11): “Catastrophe,
Recovery, and Triumph”
• links Holocaust with State of Israel “which
provided a consoling sense of home if not
of safety for years to come.”
• period begins with German invasion of
Poland and ends with truce between “the
new Jewish state and its Arab invaders
during the mass arrival there of European
survivors.” (347)
Are We Post-Modern?
• Was there a dynamic to Jewish “modernity”
that is now over?
• Shall we distinguish between “modern” and
“contemporary” history
• we will try to go past 1945 and 1948 to at
least 1967 with some discussion of
contemporary events and trends; so have
our questions changed?
Nationalism
• Good example of a changing dynamic is
seen in the dynamic of Jewish nationalism
since 1948 and especially since 1967
• National memory/myth-making
History and the Contemporary
• historical study should lead to contemporary
understanding through contextualization
• Intelligent reader of newspaper
• Exercise based on newspaper articles
–
–
–
–
Jerusalem Post
Jerusalem Report
HaAretz
YNet
Shmuel Ettinger
• Understanding of modernization
• centrifugal vs centripetal
Traumatic Modernization
• geographic alienation
• cultural alienation
• even the centripetal is a reaction to
centrifugal